Hawk312

Sorry, not too much progress on this. I`m not really good with in progress threads with my crazy schedule. But here is what I have so far. I got the carb cover where I want it to be, and am going to cast it soon. It took me a while to simulate the colors on the exhaust manifolds. It was a 4 step process to get it right. The spark plug wires were painted with red primer, which looks more orangish than red, which is what i was shooting for.

For Testors, Im not sure. I don`t use it enough. But I think when I did the Jim Yates car (that was testors) it seemed to dry a little faster than the Duplicolor. I think i waited 2-3 weeks if memory serves me. I try to see if I can scratch an area with my fingernail to test if it is cured. If I can "diig" into it at all, I`ll wait. Not very scientific, I know. Some use the "smell test", where when the paint is fully cured it wont smell.

That looks great! What kind of paint did you use?

Thanks! No, I didn`t really mock up the body and chassis. I`ve built about a dozen or so of these so far, and all of them have went together pretty well in final assembly. The paint work is usually one of the first things I do because I use lots of clear, and i want it to be fully cured by the time it is ready to be rubbed out prior to final assembly.

Thanks everyone! Thanks Harry! The real one went for $3,500,000 at Barret Jackson in January. I would be happy with 1:120th of that!

Ok, I am going to give a try on a work in progress thread. Updates might be few and far between as I am not good with these. So I am going to try to build a red on red L88 coupe without side pipes and with Rallye wheels, like the one that went across Barrett Jackson. I will be using the Monogram `67 Covette Coupe kit from the mid-90`s. This will take alot of modification to get right. Some of you may remember the "Big Scale Beauty" issue from a few years ago. I will follow the same procedures as I documented there, but this will take more modification given the exhaust, chassis, and body work needed to match the real car. The first problem is the sink marks in the chassis. Since this will be a full detail build including chalk markings, it would make no sense to not address this. After some sanding: Since the 1:1 car doesn`t have side pipes, exhaust pipes that make their way through the frame cross-member will need to be fabricated. And since the cross member is solid, I needed to carve out holes for the pipes. Given the surrounding surfaces that get in the way, this was a little more difficult than it looks: The finished and painted chassis: I have a gripe with kits that have two engine halves that divide the oil pan. Sanding, filling, priming, and eventually painting rectify this: This car has no heater. That means removing the heater box from the firewall. It also has a special intake that needed to be fabricated. The bottom carburetor cover piece is actually one of the drag wheels conformed to the general shape of the cover using an open flame, then the outer rim removed. I am using filler putty to fill in the details and to get an accurate shape. The top small cover is actually the aftermarket Moroso air cleaner lid trimmed to the size you see here. The L-88 cars had the unshielded spark plug wires (no radios) and were a flat orangish red. Since there is no heater and radio, and the kit version comes with these, I needed to carefully remove them. This is tricky because of the surrounding ridges in the dash. But lots of careful trimming, sanding, and filling results in this: The 1:1 car is Rally Red with Tuxedo Black striping. This is what it looks like right after being sprayed from the can before any sanding or polishing. I have my work cut out. Automotive lacquers are used throughout.

Hi Bill, No problem. Looking forward to seeing your future brilliant, polished work. Also, I forgot to mention, I use Duplicolor sprays almost exclusively. From memory, the top three `vettes were all sprayed with Duplicolor "Universal Black" and clear coat. They spray with a nice pattern, and it is *really* hard to make them run.

Great job on that hood. That is impressive for just out of the can! For color sanding, here is a diagram from Tamiya that explains why you would want to color sand: Now, I suppose if you already have a smooth finish before clear, you could skip that step. So, once the color is on, to color sand, I usually start with 1000 or 1500 sandpaper, depending on the level of orange peel (more orange peel, lower #sandpaper), using warm water with just a drop or two of dish detergent. I sand until there are no "valleys." After that, I start with the clear, two mist coats 10 minutes apart followed by consecutive clear coats, with 5 being the minimum. Ideally, I use at least 6 or 7 coats to avoid sanding through during the wet sanding process. I always allow mine to fully cure after the clear before wet sanding. I know there are some who say you need to wet sand before the paint becomes too hard, but that tells me that the paint still has some gassing out or shrinking which will distort the finish. I have tried wet sanding and rubbing out a finish within a couple days of spraying, but when I come back to it a few weeks later, the finish isn`t as crystal clear as when I first rubbed it out. I will usually let mine cure for a few weeks to a month, but if you are using a food dehydrator or other form of getting it to cure in an environment above ambient temperature (I use our oven, to the dismay of my wife ), it will take considerably less time. Again, once cured, I usually start with 1000 or 1500 sandpaper, depending on the level of orange peel. Once all the valleys are gone and every spot of the body looks "flat" from different angles, I will move to 2000 grit and finally 3500. I use all 3M sandpaper. For rubbing compound lately, I am using Meguiars 105. I use that and rub until all the scratches are gone, and the finish looks just slightly dull, but still has a shine. Then I move to Meguiars 205. I am really happy with this combination. With the 205, that is where the finish really starts to pop. The more you rub with this, the more shine you will get because the abrasives actually break down into finer abrasives the more it is used. And finally, and this may not be necessary if you are using some sort of polish, I use Tamiya "finish" compound to finish up. I use separate cloths for each compound, which should be a given. Hope all this helps!

Ahhh, yes, one of my favorite subjects. First I`ll back up what everyone else says... that hood looks great!! I love the color and the shine. If that is straight from the can/airbrush, that is amazing. Also, I agree some colors just aren`t reflective. Further, what is considered "depth" can be subjective, IMO. Here are a few of what I consider my "deepest" finishes: For all three of those, I used the exact same process as the one below. Lots of prep getting the body lines right, sanding carefully in multiple directions to avoid "grooves", color sanding before clear, many coats of clear (as many as 10! on some of them), wet sanding until there are no "valleys", and then rubbing it out with rubbing compound followed by polishing compound and then a "finish" compound.. Much time is spent rubbing with the compounds. Contrast that with the below,on which I used the exact same process: Even with all the rubbing and polishing, IMO there is just no way to get the "depth" that I can get with the black cars, even with plenty of clear. And speaking of clear, to further confuse the issue, here are a couple without clear that appear fairly "deep" to me: Again, in my opinion, it is quite subjective what can be classified as a "deep" finish. I feel most of it is in body prep, getting the lines straight and the panels flat, as well as lots of careful wet sanding and rubbing with the compounds. Hope this offers some perspective.

Ohhhh, how I wish! It is just a 1/25 scale kit though, of the `70 Hemi Cuda. I am going to have to take a trip here soon.

Thanks 89! Did you happen to see the new cuda kit there as well?

Done right, I love red interiors!! For reference, here is duplicolor red vinyl and interior dye directly over krylon white primer: And here is duplicolor touch up spray topped with testors dullcote:

Thanks, but it definitely is a kit. Here are a few more pics:

Actually, the black and silver stripes around the bottom were masked and painted on. At some point, I am planning to get someone to print off a set of the silver "IROC-Z" letters for the doors. You might want to get in touch with Chief Joseph on here. I know he prints custom decals. As far as the wheels, they were brush painted with flat aluminum mixed with some flat black. I used my super small brush (thinking it is 000 ??) to outline the dark areas, and then filled them in with a larger brush.

Thanks guys!

I have a few of these, and agree with what everyone else has said about the price. I was lucky enough to get one of mine when they were still on the shelves for $60 or so back about 15 years ago. It builds up very nicely with good proportions. Let me know if you have any questions during your build.

Thanks everyone! I thought I might get questions on the hood, but I guess not. For those who care, it is a combination of the Mustang kit hood and the AMT Fast and Furious Camaro hood.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I really appreciate it! Right you are sir! I wanted to do Haldibrands, but didn`t want to do the Eleanor wheels. I wanted to do something a little different. It is interesting to see the responses here. One another forum, they aren`t to fond of those wheels. But I like them on this, and I guess that is what matters. :/

More pics:

Some of you who have been on other building forums for a while may remember a while back, like over a decade ago, I built an Eleanor inspired `66 Fastback. I had another kit of the `66 lying around for years, and I wanted to do everything I feel I missed and correct some of my mistakes on the previous one. The was the intent. However, it sort of evolved to what you see here, and it turned into a decent in-between project, IMO. Alot of parts were used from the GT500 kit, including the interior and engine. Many parts were scratch built. Let me know what you think!

Looks great! I like the color choice. I also like the wheel choice. They are from the 1/32 "Big Time" Jada Cobra right? I am using them on my current Mustang project.

I`m glad I`m not the only one who thinks the car on the box looks goofy. Another question for you. What was your method for getting the gold inserts in the honeycomb wheels.

That looks fantastic! Is this the Revell kit? I may have to take a second look at that kit if it is. I was hesitant because of the box art. But that looks really nice!

I would be happy with this even if it was just a resin/plastic piece.

Thanks! And sorry about the slip-up on the name. As far as the radiator brackets, as far as I know, there are no fitment issues. But I mean....they are all the way on the last page. That means they are optional.